A man who describes himself as a suspect in the disappearance of a 19-year-old Aurora woman has a criminal history that includes convictions for unusual and, at times, violent behavior toward women.

Travis Forbes once stole three pairs of a woman’s panties, poked holes in two of them and marked them with her first initial. It was one of several burglaries he committed.

Years later, without provocation, he threw rocks at two female joggers, striking one in the head.

Now, by his own account, Forbes, 31, is a suspect in the disappearance of 19-year-old Kenia Monge.

In an interview two weeks ago with The Denver Post, he said he was only trying to help Monge when he offered her a ride home in the early morning of April 1 as she left her friends, personal belongings and cellphone behind in a LoDo nightclub. He said he let her out at a gas station, and she walked off with a stranger, never to be seen again.

Although police have not identified a suspect in Monge’s disappearance, they have searched Forbes’ business, van and a farm in Larimer County. They found holes in his story and have outlined odd circumstances in search-warrant affidavits.

People close to Forbes say they have mixed feelings about his connection to the Monge missing-person investigation.

Monica Poole, who owns Deby’s Bakery and Cafe at 2369 S. Trenton Way, said she could no longer lease space to him after he repeatedly lied and stole from her. But, at the same time, she doesn’t believe he could kill.

“He’s not a violent person,” Poole said. “I don’t think he did it. It’s very much in his character to stop and help someone.”

In the interview two weeks ago, Forbes said he is not the same person he was years ago, when he broke into houses and businesses to support a drug addiction.

When he was 17, Forbes broke into 16 Fort Collins homes and businesses, stealing more than $15,000 worth of money and merchandise, according to court records.

When police searched his room, they found several pairs of women’s underpants, including three belonging to a woman whose first name started with an M. Two of the white panties had an “M” written in marker that the woman had not inked and a 1½-inch rip in them.

Frequently in trouble

On Tuesday, a man who returned a message left for Forbes but refused to confirm his identity said he had agreed to a plea in that case but still denied stealing the underwear, saying they had belonged to a former girlfriend. He reluctantly entered the plea at his public defender’s recommendation to avoid a lengthy prison term.

“Wow, I knew that was going to come back on me,” he said. “I said, ‘No, I didn’t do that.’ “

Forbes was sentenced to nine years in prison for two felony burglary counts but was admitted into a military boot camp. He was kicked out of the program for many rule violations after 50 days. He was later placed on probation.

He frequently got into trouble on probation, getting arrested for criminal harassment in 1998, breaking a rule by carrying a knife in 1999, and violating curfew 43 times in 1998 and 1999. He was then sent to community corrections.

On July 17, 2004, friends Allison Biever, 37, and Alison Baker, 22, were jogging to Summit View Elementary School in Highlands Ranch when they passed Forbes and a woman who were near a parked car.

“As we passed the car, I felt something hit the back right portion of my head. I felt a stinging sensation,” Biever wrote in a report to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

As she turned around, another rock hit the pavement. When the friends confronted him, Forbes yelled obscenities. “What are you going to do, you stupid (expletive).”

Olga Kaynanov, the woman who was with Forbes, told a deputy that he only gets that way when he’s drunk.

Forbes told the deputy he was kicking rocks and one accidently hit her leg. Forbes was convicted of third-degree assault.

“I sat in the county jail for five months for that. It was a lot of time for a misdemeanor. Since then, I had a change in spirituality,” the caller said. “I am a completely different person than I was then.”

Forbes created a gluten-free granola bar. He had contracts with coffee shops and health stores when he came under suspicion in the Monge case.

He was seen on videotape rolling a large cooler to the back entrance of Deby’s Bakery the day after Monge’s disappearance. The camera continues recording as Forbes is seen turning off the recording device, according to court records.

Forbes told police he turned off the recording device because he needed to change his clothes. But he later admitted to Poole that he lied to them because he actually turned the camera off so he could take the $60 that she later found missing from her cash register.

Part of the reason Poole doesn’t believe he killed Monge is that he often used the cooler he rolled into her shop to take his granola bars to stores.

“It was not suspicious,” she said.

Cooler latch broken

On the video, the cooler’s lid appears to be shut and secured with duct tape, according to court records.

The man who returned Forbes’ call said the cooler’s latch broke and that he was using the duct tape to hold the container closed.

He said he is worried that his other activities on the night Monge disappeared will eventually surface. He declined to discuss what they were.

“There are other things about that night that will come out, but it had nothing to do with that girl who is missing,” he said. “I don’t want to incriminate myself. . . . With Colorado’s three-strikes law, I could get a habitual-offender charge.”

For the time being, Forbes is focused on clearing himself in the Monge case.

“They’ll find her, and evidence will point to whoever did this,” he said.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.

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